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“Kind of?” Lilly scoffed. “The biggest mess I’d ever been. Rather determined to screw it all up out of fear too, because I could not admit to myself or anyone else I was afraid. I think you’re a step ahead of me, sis.”

Cora breathed in a deep breath and let it out. “Step ahead. Well, there’s a first time for everything.”

Lilly reached down into the playpen and picked up a fussing Grace. “I hope you’ll let us meet him.”

“Oh. Right.” Cora tried to imagine the Tylers and Evanses together and . . . Actually, it wasn’t that hard to imagine. Brandon and Lilly might be all business and polish, and the Tylers might be all no-nonsense ranch people, but they were one devoted group.

“I’m going to go change Gracie’s diaper. Can you keep an eye on Aiden?”

Cora nodded. Lilly disappeared, and, when Cora’s cell rang, she answered it absently without even looking at who was calling. “Hello?”

“You sound distracted.”

She smiled at the sound of Shane’s voice. “Funny how that happens when I was up all night for nefariously dirty reasons.”

He chuckled. “Nefarious, huh?”

“The nefarious-est.”

She loved the baffled sound to his laugh, as if he couldn’t help himself but to find her charming, no matter how ridiculous she was.

“How was Micah’s camping trip?”

It warmed her that he would call, call to askthat. “Good. He saw a bear, though Sam assured me it was from an appropriate distance.”

“I’m sure that eased your mind completely.”

“Oh, yes, bears and my son didn’t give me a panic attackat all.”

“Of course. You still up for dinner? Mom’s planning a big old barbecue. Any special requests from either of you two?”

“No, we’ll eat anything I don’t cook,” Cora returned, earning another laugh. Oh, hell, she was scarily in head over her heels with him. “You know, I was just talking to my sister. She wants to meet you.”

“Well, I want to meet her too. Why don’t you invite her and her family tonight? Mom put us boys in charge of grilling. Mol’s in town getting groceries. I’ll text her to pick up a few more.”

“I don’t want to—”

“Bring them,” he insisted. Then there was an odd pause, and if she had been reading into things she might’ve called it uncertainty. “If you want to, that is.”

“I do. I do want to.” It scared her to want things like this, this much.

“It’s settled then. See you in a bit, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.” More than okay, really. “Shane?”

“Yeah.”

“I . . .” What idiot said that after one not-even-date and over the phone? Not this idiot. “I wanted to say thanks for last night. Best date I’ve ever not been on.”

He laughed. “We’ll try again.”

“Can we fail again, too? I really liked the failing part.”

“I’ll make sure of it. See you soon, Cora.”

“Bye,” she managed, feeling so many things at once she could hardly grasp any of them as she hit End on her phone.

She looked up to find Micah in the doorway giving her one of those unreadable stares. She smiled at him, feeling a little too off-kilter right now to face that look straight on. “You ready to go?”